Damon
I stare down at Klaus' pale face, his lips blend into his face and his brow is damp with sweat and I wonder what could've possibly happened to him.
"I thought you weren't coming back until tomorrow," I whisper down to him. "What the hell happened?"
His eyes roll back in his head and I attempt to rouse him to get the answers I desperately need. "Klaus? Klaus? Klaus, talk to me."
"What's he doing here?"
"What does he mean the cure's gone?"
"What's he talking about, Damon?"
"What aren't you telling us?"
"Is there something we should know?"
"Damon?"
"Damon?"
"Damon!"
"Damon!"
Elena and Stefan's relentless questions echo in my ears until all I can do is scream, "Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!"
They look on at me in shock and I say, "I'll-I'll explain everything, but first let's get him on the couch."
I lift Klaus from the ground, throw him down onto the couch and a light groan escapes him.
"He needs blood, I'll go get some," I say heading for the door.
"Uh, no you don't," Stefan says his voice firm. "You're not going anywhere until you explain all of this to us."
With a frustrated sigh I blurt out the truth at super speed.
"When Klaus got out he turned up here, said he wanted to get the cure. We found Katherine in Pennsylvania and Klaus offered her freedom for the cure."
"The road trip. That's where you were. You were with him," Stefan states, the pieces syncing up.
I nod. "But Klaus took off with the cure, said he needed to find some wolves for his hybrids. He called me yesterday and said he'd be back tomorrow, but-"
"And you didn't think to tell us any of this?" Stefan yells.
"I couldn't. Not until I knew for sure it was happening. And it's a good job I didn't, because look at what's happened."
"All that stuff you said about starting over and you thought this was the way to do it? With lies?" Stefan says, the vein in the side of his head popping out as his temper flares.
"Believe me, it's killed me keeping this secret, but I did what I had to do. I did it for Elena."
"Oh here we go again. 'I did it for Elena'", he mocks. "When are you going to stop, huh?"
"This is nothing like that," I bite back. "I'm doing this because Elena wants it and Katherine having it was dangerous. Nothing more, nothing less."
"We all agreed we were going to stay away from this for our safety and look, you've put us all in danger again all for that goddamn cure! Elena died last time, or did you forget that?"
"I remember, Stefan!" I yell, my anger finally getting the best of me. "Did you forget that you're the one always saying choice is the most important thing? That all you want is for Elena to have the choice to be human again? Because that's all I was doing; giving her a choice."
"You still lied, Damon."
"Stop, stop, stop. Just stop this!" Elena shouts over the top of us. "None of this matters right now. Look at Klaus."
In our rage we'd completely forgotten about Klaus who seems to be deteriorating by the minute.
"Like I said, he needs blood," I say speeding to the fridge to get some, not giving Stefan chance to stop me this time.
Stefan
I pace up and down the room frantically my heart thumping in my chest as I bite on my nails. Elena is bent over Klaus dabbing at his brow with a wet flannel and she calls to me to calm down.
"Calm down? How can I calm down, Elena?" I exclaim through gritted teeth.
Damon returns with an armful of blood bags, throws one to Elena and she proceeds to rip the top off and hand it to Klaus. The smell of blood seems to bring him to and he slowly reaches for it and begins to drink.
The three of us wait in silence, knowing there's nothing more to say and that we need to hear from Klaus. When he's finished the blood bag he seems to regain some colour in his face and is alert enough that his eyes open.
"Klaus, what happened?" Elena asks her voice firm. "Has someone hurt you?"
He shakes his head. "It started the second day of our trip," he explains looking over to Damon. "I started to feel odd...not myself, but I ignored it and as the days have gone by the symptoms have just got worse. I had to abandon the wolf pack in Tennessee because I was too unwell and the second I was alone and left vulnerable, I was attacked. Whoever it was, took the cure."
I shake my head unable to believe that all of this happened without me even knowing and I can't let go of the burning white fury I have towards Damon. Why the hell didn't he tell me!?
"Symptoms? What symptoms?" Elena inquires.
"The cough," Damon states causing Elena to look up at him with confusion. "When we spoke on the phone yesterday he couldn't stop coughing. Why the hell didn't you mention anything?"
"Because I don't need you or anyone else. I can handle it on my own," Klaus attempts to shout, but his voice is weak.
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but it doesn't look like you can," Damon retorts.
"Damon." Elena shoots Damon a glare and then turns back to Klaus and asks him in a calm voice, "So what are the symptoms?"
"Headaches, coughing, sweating, a fever," he lists. "Whatever it is, I'm weak. Weaker than I've ever been."
"It sounds like flu," Elena states.
I shake my head. "This is...this is all ridiculous. You're telling me a hybrid can get the flu?" I scoff.
"No, someone did this," Klaus says with gritted teeth. "Someone that knew I had the cure and wanted it for themselves."
"Katherine?" Damon suggests.
Klaus shakes his head. "Katerina wouldn't dare do anything to jeopardize her freedom."
"Then who?" Damon asks, his brow furrowed in concentration.
"I don't know, but it really doesn't matter because as long as I'm like this I'm vulnerable. I can't protect myself."
"How does it feel? It sucks, huh?" Damon says.
Klaus scowls at him and says, "Only witchcraft would be capable of doing this to me and that means only witchcraft can undo it."
"Good plan. Oh, but one problem. We don't know any witches. Not since..."
Damon trails off unable to finish that sentence and I notice Elena bow her head in sadness. She offers Klaus a second blood bag and he willingly takes it, this time devouring it in a much shorter time.
"So you didn't see who it was that attacked you?" I ask. "Surely you must've seen something."
"Stefan, I was in the woods, alone at night and I was disorientated. Whoever it was came up behind me and they were fast."
"So you're saying it was a vampire?"
"A vampire, a werewolf. Definitely supernatural."
I roll my eyes. I should've seen this coming. Just when things were starting to look up and Elena and I were starting to see a happy future and we were working things out with Damon it all comes crashing down. It's not fair. I don't want this.
"I don't know what you want us to do about this," I say.
"What?" Klaus exclaims. "I want you to bloody help me!"
"Stefan..." Elena says softly getting up and reaching out for my arms.
"No, no!" I yell pulling away from her and moving across the room. "I don't wanna hear it. After everything that's happened I don't want anything to do with the cure. Elena you died for that thing. You got to come back, but Bonnie...she wasn't so lucky."
"I know that, Stefan," she says getting close to me. "But we can't do nothing. You heard what Klaus said, he's vulnerable and he needs help to get back to his full strength. Besides, whoever took the cure can't have a good intentions or reasons for wanting it. I'm not sure we were ever really free of it. You and I both know there would've come a day when we had to find Katherine and take it off her. It's too dangerous, Stefan. One person having the power to destroy all immortality? Who knows what Katherine would've done with it and who knows what the person who has it now plans to do with it."
"Oh, yeah, about that..." Damon says holding his hand up in the air.
"What now?" I ask impatiently.
"The cure...there's only one."
"What?" Elena and I exclaim in unison.
Damon with the aid of Klaus explains the true story of Silas - the vampire who fell in love with the witch Qetsiyah - and that the cure was made by her as a way for her to spend a mortal life with her one true love, but that before they had chance her coven sacrificed Silas, dooming her to eternal misery.
"I guess we kinda should've figured it out for ourselves. A cure made to cure Silas of immortality...Silas is one vampire and it was made for one vampire," Damon says.
I sigh deeply, rub my temples and feel the brewing of a migraine in my head.
"But that doesn't-It doesn't change anything, right?" Elena asks. "Even if it's just one cure, the person that has it could still use it to wreak havoc. And we need to stop it."
"It's about more than that, Elena. I helped Klaus get this cure because-"
"I don't want to hear it, Damon," Elena says holding up her hand. "This isn't about me or us right now, it's about doing the right thing."
I stare on at admiration at Elena who seems to have taken the news so much more better than I have. It's during these times of crisis that I realise how important she is, because whilst all logical thought fails me and all I can do is feel the rage bubbling inside me, she assumes responsibility and keeps me centered by reminding me of what's important.
Because she's right. Whether I like it or not, Damon and Klaus got that cure off Katherine and now someone we don't know has it and could potentially use it to destroy us all. I don't know how or why it always comes down to us to deal with the fall out of the choices others make, but like Elena I must accept that it's happened now and it cannot be undone.
"So where do we even start?" Elena asks.
"You start with me," a familiar voice calls from the doorway of the living room.
Elena
I recognise the voice almost instantly and it strikes fear into the very core of my being. Even Klaus shoots up from the sofa, his eyes wide in terror.
"No...no...that's not possi-"
"Oh, but it is. You see, your boyfriend over here fed me his blood in an attempt to save your life."
"You're a vampire," Damon states.
"Ding ding!" Shane calls, the same snide and conniving smile I remember all over his face.
I don't know why but before I've even had time to formulate another thought I've launched myself at Shane at full speed, as I screech uncontrollably, "It's your fault she's dead! You killed Bonnie! It's your fault! She's dead because of you!"
Stefan and Damon immediately run to my aid, ripping me off him as I struggle against them and Shane simply jumps up and rubs himself down.
"Tut tut, Elena. I really have no idea what you're even talking about, I-"
"Bonnie cast the spell to bring me back and died doing it."
He inhales sharply. "Oh, dear. That is rather sad."
His words enrage me more and I edge forward, but Stefan whispers into my ear, "Elena, don't. Stop. We can't lose it now."
It's his turn to be my anchor.
"So you're the bastard that did this to me?" Klaus calls from the couch.
"Oh, Klaus, hi," Shane says with a single wave and a smile. "I didn't notice you there. Er, yep, that was me."
Klaus scowls and attempts to get up, but flops back down with a groan.
"Don't strain yourself, Klaus. All we're doing is chatting, right, folks?" he says stepping from the doorway into the room.
"Get on with it then," Damon says from beside me.
He laughs lightly. "Always the impatient one, eh, Damon?"
"You heard him. Get on with it. You're obviously here for a reason," Stefan says.
Stefan and Damon remain close to me and Stefan and I both grab for one another's hands at the same time, our grip tight.
"You're right about that. When I woke up in that dark cave, alone and covered in blood I just couldn't understand what'd happened, how I was alive. But I found my way out and even though I didn't know what was going on the first young lady I came across...I just couldn't stop myself. She was so irresistible. I understand why those such as yourself, Stefan, may sometimes not be able to stop. It was only once I'd completed the transition that I truly understood what had happened to me."
"The fact that you came back from the dead wasn't enough of a clue for you, huh?" Damon jokes.
"Once I'd learned the ropes, I gathered my strength and I knew what I had to do."
"And what's that?" Stefan asks.
"Find Silas."
Damon and Stefan scoff and even I stare on at him in disbelief wondering how the first thought after he'd came back from the dead and completed the transition was still to find Silas.
"Hate to break it to you, buddy, but Silas is a myth. Everything you told us was make believe."
"Well, I know that now, don't I?" Shane snaps. "I found a coven of witches down south and I managed to persuade them to cast a little spell. Well, a few spells."
"How'd you get them to do that? Witches can't be compelled."
"You forget, Elena, that I have my very own personal kind of compulsion that never fails, unlike vampire compulsion."
"So you used your mind control parlor tricks on them to do this to Klaus? Why? To get the cure? Why would you want the cure?" Stefan asks through narrowed eyes.
"Yeah, if you wanted to be human again so bad why haven't you already taken it?" Damon adds.
"Once the witches told me the truth about Silas and his witch I knew that if I was going to bring my wife back I had to find another way," Shane tells us, ignoring both Damon and Stefan's questions.
"Why couldn't you have just got them to cast a resurrection spell?" I ask.
"No resurrection spell can be cast without dire consequences. You know that."
I hang my head, Bonnie's death still so raw that any mention of her feels like a stab to the heart.
"You still haven't told us why you needed the cure," I say, growing impatient myself. "Do you even have it or is all of this just a bluff?"
"Oh, I have it," he says reaching into his jean pocket.
He doesn't pull it out, but his hand seems to be clutched around something in his pocket.
"But how? How did you know where to find the cure? How did you know Klaus even had it? You were dead when Katherine took it and even if you found out she had it, how did you know me and Klaus were going to look for it? How did you know exactly where Klaus was?"
"I devoted everything to finding Silas, but it wasn't because of him, it was because of my wife. I would do anything for her. Anything."
"That's great, but you still haven't answered my question."
"I knew, Damon, because I'm smart. Unlike you lot who seem to dive into things blind and run around like headless chickens, relying on chance and luck to get you through, I plan, I analyse and I make damn sure that I'm going to get what I want."
"That seems to have gone really well for you so far," I can't help but retort.
"I admit that things...they didn't go quite to plan."
"Didn't quite go to plan? You killed yourself - and me in the process - all in the hope that Silas would bring you back and he doesn't even exist! If it weren't for luck and chance, you wouldn't even be standing here right now."
"I made a mistake, Elena. Have you never made a mistake?"
"Not mistakes like yours, no, because I'd never do the things you've done."
"That's where you're wrong, because when you love someone there's nothing you wouldn't do for them. If it were Stefan that were dead, you know in your heart that you would do what I have done in a heartbeat."
It's in brief moments like this that I feel a bizarre connection to Shane that I can't quite explain. It's because in spite of everything, he loves deeply, just as I do. The irony is, he loves too deeply. He loves his wife so much that it's driven him to insanity and caused him to completely discard his morals or any sense of compassion he may have once had.
"You will reverse the spell cast on me and you will do it NOW!" Klaus randomly shouts from the couch, his consciousness seeming to have returned to him once more.
He ignores Klaus, locks his intense eyes on me and although I can't explain why, a cold shiver runs down my spine causing me to clench Stefan's hand in mine so tight that his bones crack.
"I will get my wife back. Whatever it takes."
Stefan
I know that something is coming from the change in Elena's body language and her vice like grip on my hand, so I instinctively pull her back behind me and as I do Shane whips his hand out of his pocket, puts what looks to be a long tube to his mouth and blows.
A dart flies from it full speed and I dive on top of Elena, pushing her aside, just in time. The dart sinks itself into Damon's neck and moments later he collapses to the ground.
Shane takes the dart gun to his mouth once more and Elena and I sprint around the room in different directions at top speed, in an attempt to disorientate and confuse him. For a new vampire he's incredibly agile and fast and I know that we won't be able to keep this up for too long.
I rip a shard of wood from the bookcase and propel it at him, but he avoids it and Elena follows suit, propelling all manner of weapons at him. Each one misses and suddenly he turns his attention away from us and to Klaus.
Reaching into his back pocket he pulls out an injection filled with a mystifying red liquid. Elena comes to a halt beside me and asks, "What the hell is that?"
The epiphany strikes me in a flash and I throw myself across the room.
"NOOOOO!"
I push Shane aside and land on top of Klaus' limp and unconscious body, then feel a sharp sting at the bottom of my back. I swing around to see Shane's face, contorted with horror.
"NO!" he screams at the top of his lungs. "YOU! You've ruined everything! My wife... AHHHH!"
He launches at me with a shard of wood but before he has chance to even move a muscle a stake plummets through his chest causing me to gasp in surprise. A shuddery breath escapes Shane as the black veins work their way up his neck and take him over.
He slumps back onto the ground to reveal Elena standing firm and tall, bloody stake in her hand.
"Oh, my god, Stefan," she calls, dropping the stake and clambering over Shane to lift me up from Klaus. "Did he hurt Klaus? Did he-?" she asks, panicked breaths taking her over.
"No. Go and check on Damon."
I clutch to my head which is growing heavy and after a few moments Elena returns.
"Vervain dart," she informs me holding it out to me.
I nod and my vision blurs, causing me to wobble unsteadily on my feet.
"Whoa, Stefan," Elena says, holding onto me and running her hand down my back in an act of comfort. "I can't believe that just happened. What was he thinking?"
"He was thinking of killing me," Klaus croaks. "Is it over?"
"He's dead," I inform him.
"Oh, thank the bloody Lord," he exhales. "I know now what he was trying to do."
"But you...you were unconscious when he was saying all that stuff."
"I heard every word," he says with a shake of his head. "The spell he cast to bring his wife back...if he killed an Original vampire enough vampires would die to give the witches the power they need in order to bring back a human life."
"That was his plan?" Elena asks in horror.
"Mmm, makes sense. Witches hate vampires, millions of vampires dead all over the world in exchange for one human life...it's a pretty good deal."
I wobble again and slouch forward, steadying myself on the arm of the chair and Elena comes up to me.
"Stefan, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" she asks with concern, rubbing her hand up and down my back. "It all happened so fast and I...Wait. What-what's that?" she asks turning her head to look at my back.
"What?"
She pulls something from out of my back which causes me to wince a little and when she brings it around I'm mortified to see the injection that Shane held over Klaus just seconds ago, one final drop of the red liquid sitting inside.
"Is that-Is that what I think it is?" Klaus asks his wide eyes.
The look of terror that comes across my face is enough to make Elena drop the injection on the floor and she practically falls forward into me as she frantically asks, "Stefan, what is it? What is it?"
The wooziness in my head starts to make it difficult to think let alone speak and she grabs for my face. "Hey, Stefan, Stefan, look at me. What's going on?"
"It's-it's the c-c-cure."
She frowns in confusion and then a look of realisation comes to her face as she smacks her lips together and tilts her head to the side. "No, no, no, no."
I slump forward and she lowers me to the ground carefully cradling my head in her arms.
"Klaus how do we stop this?" she exclaims frantically.
I peer over at the couch and Klaus seems to have drifted back off and I wonder how it came to this moment. Everything was so perfect yesterday...everything was so perfect...
Elena
The panic is so vividly real that it consumes me from the inside out making it hard to breathe. With Klaus and Damon both unconscious I'm all alone and I'm terrified. I was willing to take the cure and in fact the purpose of finding it had been all because I wanted to take it, but the reality of knowing that Stefan has it in his system...I can't bear it.
What if it's not what we thought? What if it does something else? What if it goes wrong? What if...what if it...kills him? The mere thought causes a silent cry to escape me.
Stefan grows heavier in his arms and although his eyes are still fixed on me, I can see that he's slowly fading into unconciousness.
"Here, here, Stefan," I say straining to reach for a blood bag off the arm of the chair intended for Klaus. "Drink this. Drink," I instruct him, not sure what else I can possibly do.
"Elena, Elena...stop," he replies, pushing the blood bag down. "It doesn't matter what we do now. The cure's inside me, we just have to ride it out."
"Ride it out?" I exclaim, not understanding how he can possibly be so calm about this. "What if it isn't what we thought it was? Is it supposed to do this? What happens? Do you just fall asleep and wake up tomorrow a human? Stefan, I don't...I can't lose you. Not again."
"You won't. You can't ever lose me. We've been through so much, Elena-"
"Exactly and what if we can't get through this too? Stefan, we've never talked about this. You being human...This is all too much."
I feel guilty for being the one falling apart when he's the one going through it, but I don't know what else to do. Just minutes ago I was eating dinner with my family and for the first time in so long I was filled with hope for the future and now...it's all been taken away.
Everything is uncertain and the future I'd started to envision with Stefan may never happen now.
"It's gonna be fine," Stefan reassures me taking his hand in mine. "I know we didn't exactly plan this, but we'll do what we always do. We'll take each day as it comes and-"
"We'll do it together," I say finishing his sentence.
"Exactly," he smiles weakly and his eyes begin to droop shut.
"I love you, Stefan," I say, the sudden need to make sure he knows that taking me over.
I know it's dramatic considering that the likelihood is he will wake up human tonight or tomorrow or next week, but I'm filled with a nauseating sense of uncertainty and I just need him to know that I love him.
"Stop that, would you?" he says, his voice quiet. "I'm not going anywhere. It'll be fine."
I nod and decide to push through any fear or anxiety I have to see him through this. I need to be strong now, for him.
"It will be fine," I reiterate and he beams up at me, those words having done him the world of good.
Finally the last piece of consciousness slips from him and his head slumps in my arm.
"I'll see you on the other side," I whisper.
With everyone in the room either being dead or unconscious I throw my head back and exhale sharply and heavily attempting to get a grip on the events that have just unfolded. But I have only a moment, before Damon shoots up and worriedly glances around the room before crawling towards me on his hands and knees.
"What happened?" he asks me upon seeing Shane's body. "Oh, my god, Stefan...is he?"
"The cure," is all I manage to get out.
"The cure? What-? Oh my god. How-how-how...?" Damon stammers incoherently.
I bite my lip hard to keep the tears at bay, then explain, "Shane tried to get Klaus so he could kill him and his sire line to bring his wife back but Stefan he...he dived in the way."
Damon shakes his head and blinks rapidly then shuffles towards to us and reaches out to place his hand on Stefan's head. I see the same fear and uncertainty I feel reflected in Damon's eyes, but just like his brother, Damon reassures me with, "Elena, everything's gonna be fine. It'll all be okay."
I nod and pull Stefan in closer to my chest, kissing his hair and Damon remains close to us. Even if Stefan and Damon are right and somehow it all turns out okay, everything is going to change now. The three of us have been ripped from the new path we set ourselves on just days ago and are once again faced with an ambivalent future that we will only be able to get through if we do it together.
I just hope that we're strong enough to overcome this too...
A/N: So there we have it, I've finally reached the end of this story after 10 months of writing it! First of all I just want to say a huge thank you to every single one of you that has read/favourited/reviewed and been part of the journey.
Secondly, I want to say that I know this ending will probably feel very unsatisfying for most of you since it's a cliffhanger, but it was intended to be a stand alone rewrite for season 4 and for that reason it's been left open ended as there would be more seasons to come. What happens next is really up to your interpretation. I'm not completely opposed to writing a sequel (because I do have an idea of the direction the story would go in from here), but there would have to be a huge calling for me to take on the responsibility of doing another re-write for a season. If you're interested in knowing what would happen next or want a sequel, feel free to leave reviews or PM me and maybe I can try and work something out.
Once again, thank you so so much to all of you that have supported and encouraged me through writing this story and I hope you've enjoyed it.